ONX estate spotlight
ONX Estate Vineyard Tour. The Templeton Gap ranch behind this 2020 Mad Crush.
The market on this bottle
Wine-Searcher tracks this vintage across the open market.
2020 ONX Mad Crush Templeton Gap District Paso Robles, USA
Drew Nenow's Grenache Mad Crush from the Templeton Gap estate, Wine Enthusiast 94, a 2020 you can open at forty-one dollars.
The 2020 ONX Mad Crush is 71 percent Grenache, 15 percent Mourvedre, and 14 percent Tempranillo from the estate vineyard, Wine Enthusiast 94: raspberry, pomegranate, strawberry, olive, and a stony Templeton Gap close, now $41.
Grenache that still has a Gap wind in it
Mad Crush is ONX's Grenache conversation, not a leftover blend. The 2020 is 71 percent Grenache with Mourvedre and Tempranillo from the Templeton Gap estate. Nenow ferments Grenache whole berry after a cold soak, then ages in 500-liter French puncheons with a light new-oak hand. The house style is red fruit, olive, and stone, a wine that stays approachable without turning simple. Wine Enthusiast 94. This is the bottle that puts estate Gap Grenache on a Tuesday table at forty-one dollars.
The house
ONX is Steve and Brenda Olson's Templeton Gap estate. Drew Nenow makes Mad Crush as the Grenache bottle.
The wine
71% Grenache, 15% Mourvedre, 14% Tempranillo. Whole-berry Grenache, puncheons, estate fruit.
The scores
Wine Enthusiast 94 on this 2020. Grenache-led Mad Crush, not a leftover blend.
The drinker
Serve 60 to 64 F. Twenty minutes of air. Grilled sausage or lamb.
Raspberry and pomegranate, then olive and stone
Mad Crush is built to open with red fruit and still finish like the Gap: strawberry and fig against slate, cedar bark, and olive tapenade. Wine Enthusiast 94 tasted strawberry and red cherry lifted by chai spice, then raspberry, cherry, and rosewater on feathery tannin. The 2020 keeps Grenache in front so the wine stays lifted while Mourvedre and Tempranillo add chew and spice.
A dry, warm Paso year. Grenache is the variety that keeps grace when heat is in the forecast. Nenow let that be a footnote, not the whole speech, and bottled a Mad Crush that still reads red fruit and stone.
Strawberry, red cherry, chai spice, raspberry, rosewater, olive, slate.
Grenache lift, Mourvedre chew, Tempranillo spice, puncheon tannin.
Pepper, leather, stone. Serve 60 to 64 F. Twenty minutes of air.
Whole-berry Grenache, then puncheons
Nenow cold-soaks Grenache and ferments it whole berry with gentle pumpovers. Tempranillo and the rest of the blend see a crush and a short soak, then the same two-pumpovers-a-day rhythm. Aging is 500-liter French puncheons, a small new-oak share, so fruit and stone stay in front of the barrel.
The estate is the fruit. Templeton Gap wind, onyx calcite soils, a 127-acre ranch off Paseo Excelsus.
Serve 60 to 64 F. Sausage and fennel are the weeknight plate.
The crush that is not Reckoning
Reckoning is the Syrah flagship. Mad Crush is the Grenache bottle the house pours when it wants red fruit and a Gap wind.
ONX planted in 2005. The Olsons wanted a farm. The calcite in the soil became the name.
Tin City is the tasting room. The vineyard is Templeton Gap. Nenow has had the cellar since 2018.
Mad Crush is how the estate talks Grenache. The 2020 is that talk in a warm year.
Sausage, then lamb
Grenache likes smoke and fennel. Mourvedre likes lamb fat. Tempranillo likes mustard and char.
Two plates. One grilled sausage. One rack of lamb.
Serve 60 to 64 F. Twenty minutes of air. Open it on a weeknight.
Grilled sausage and fennel
Char, mustard, peppers.
Why it works: Smoke and fennel meet GSM spice.
View Recipe for grilled Italian sausage (opens in a new tab)
Rosemary garlic rack of lamb
Nagi's rosemary garlic marinade, roasted pink.
Why it works: Rosemary and lamb fat echo savory spice in the glass.
View Recipe for rosemary garlic rack of lamb (opens in a new tab)Put Mad Crush in the cart
Wine Enthusiast 94. Templeton Gap Grenache. $21 when you buy two.
Put it in the cart. This is estate Mad Crush with olive and stone, not a sweet red blend.
